1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of conveyorized food cooking apparatus and more particularly to an apparatus for automatically loading food patties such as hamburgers, xe2x80x9cveggie burgers,xe2x80x9d beef steaks, fish filets, and chicken filets into a conveyorized cooking apparatus.
2. Background Information
Commercial restaurants, particularly those restaurants commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cfast food restaurantsxe2x80x9d that typically specialize in serving hamburgers and like sandwiches, are continually striving to reduce operating costs while at the same time increasing food cooking production and efficiency. Toward this end, many such restaurants have begun in recent years to utilize conveyorized cooking apparatus by which cooking times and temperatures can be better regulated than by more traditional cooking methods while at the same time eliminating or at least reducing the need for skilled labor.
A typical conveyorized cooking apparatus includes an endless cooking conveyor, which is often made from a metal mesh or metal rod xe2x80x9cbelt,xe2x80x9d having a horizontal run through a cooking chamber equipped with burners or heating elements on each side of the cooking conveyor. To use such an apparatus, workers manually separate the individual food patties, which are usually stored in a frozen patty stack, and then place several of the individual patties directly on the endless cooking conveyor. The patties then travel between burner elements where they are cooked and emerge from the cooking apparatus to be placed in a sandwich and sold.
While conveyorized cooking apparatus increase the food cooking production of fast food restaurants, manual loading of such apparatus creates many problems. Since individual food patties are placed directly on the actual cooking conveyor, there is a danger that employees may bum their hands by inadvertently touching the cooking conveyor while placing the patties. Since the cooking chamber is accessible, there is a danger that employees may push patties too far into the cooking apparatus when loading, which may result in undercooking the patties because they have not traveled completely through the cooking apparatus. Since there are no predetermined loading positions, manual loading may result in less than optimal cooking production if less patties are loaded on the cooking conveyor than the conveyor can accommodate or in incomplete cooking if too many patties are loaded on the conveyor and adjacent patties are overlapping. Finally, manual loading requires employees to make frequent trips to load the conveyorized cooking apparatus during peak demand times, rendering those employees unavailable for other tasks. If employees become preoccupied with other tasks and forget to make enough frequent trips to load the conveyorized cooking apparatus, then an insufficient supply of cooked food patties during large customer demand periods may result.
There have been several attempts to address the problems associated with manual loading of conveyorized cooking apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,930 to Baker et al. discloses an automatic patty feeder using a solenoid and pusher mechanism to force the lowermost patty in a stack of patties onto a cooking chain. U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,231 to Baker et al. discloses a frozen patty feeder disposed partially over a cooking conveyor and having a transversely extending first wall and an inclined transversely extending second wall supported by a pair of side walls. A stack of staggered frozen patties are placed in the feeder and a combination of friction and interengagement urges the lowermost patty onto the cooking conveyor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,697 to Lang-Ree et al. discloses a broiler with a patty feed that also relies upon friction and partial interengagement to move the lowermost patty directly onto the cooking conveyor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,544 to Robinson et al. discloses an automatic sandwich preparation system in which a plurality of frozen hamburger stacks may be loaded into canisters. A reciprocating ejection slide is used to push the lowermost patty of a particular stack onto the cooking conveyor.
While these attempts to automate the loading process of a conveyorized cooking apparatus may have some advantages, they also have several significant disadvantages. Feeders having a plurality of moving cylinders or relying upon solenoid-activated mechanical linkages may severely disrupt food preparation capability should any of the associated loader parts fail. Moreover, use of such relatively complicated loader mechanisms conflicts with an overriding principle in the fast food industry that operating machinery must be kept as simple as possible, given the need for maximum food production, the heat and grease filled environment, and the relatively unsophisticated nature of the typical worker in the industry.
Feeder devices that rely on direct interengagement of the cooking conveyor with the lowermost patty can also be disadvantageous. If the lowermost patty is solidly frozen to the patty above, the cooking conveyor would continue to grind against the bottom of the lowermost patty. Moreover, such direct interengagement would be less successful for cooking thawed hamburger patties and patties such as fish filets that might tear more easily than frozen hamburger patties.
Feeder devices that do not adequately shield the feeder surfaces from the heat generated by the associated cooking apparatus increase the likelihood that the relatively cool patties will stick to the hot feeder surfaces. This is disadvantageous for two reasons. First, when patties stick to the feeder surfaces they will often fail to load properly into the cooking apparatus. Second, portions of the patties that stick to the hot feeder surfaces essentially bake onto those surfaces making clean up and sanitation of the feeder devices difficult.
Thus, it would be desirable to have in the art an automatic loader for a conveyorized cooking apparatus that is simple in construction and simple to operate. Ideally, such an improved loader would allow maximum utilization of the cooking chamber and ensure that all food items travel completely and consistently through the conveyorized cooking apparatus. Such an improved loader should sufficiently shield loader surfaces from heat generated by the associated cooking apparatus to minimize the possibility of patties sticking to hot loader surfaces and should be easy to adequately clean and sanitize. Finally, such an improved loader should be easily adaptable to existing conveyorized cooking apparatus and have a large food loading capability.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages and drawbacks associated with conventional patty feed apparatus by providing a loader for a conveyorized cooking apparatus having a transverse partition and an endless loading belt. The loader may include several longitudinal partitions to thereby define a plurality of dispensing stations for hamburger patties, veggie burger patties, chicken filets, fish filets, or the like (these and other generally flat and essentially stackable food items being referred to herein collectively as a xe2x80x9cpattyxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cpattiesxe2x80x9d). The transverse partition is spaced above the endless loading belt by a distance slightly greater than the typical thickness of a patty to be cooked.
At least one outwardly extending cleat is provided to push the lowermost patty of a stack of patties between the loading belt and the transverse partition into the cooking apparatus. The endless loading belt can be driven, i.e., made to travel, by the same mechanism that powers the cooking conveyor. For example, a spur gear coupled on one roller supporting the endless loading belt may be coupled to a spur gear on one axle shaft supporting the cooking conveyor by use of an idler spur gear. In this way, the endless loading belt may travel at the same speed as the cooking conveyor when the cooking conveyor is driven. Alternatively, independent means such as a motor, chain, and sprocket wheel mechanism may be used to power the endless loading belt.
Stacks of patties such as frozen hamburgers, veggie burgers or other food products desired to be cooked are placed on the traveling endless loading belt, preferably immediately behind one of the outwardly extending cleats, and in positions corresponding to the dispensing station or stations defined by the dispensing partition unit. As the next outwardly extending cleat comes into contact with the lowermost patty of each stack of patties, the lowermost patties are pushed forward by the cleat through the space between the partition unit and the endless loading belt and onto the cooking conveyor. Other patties in the patty stacks, i.e., those patties that are not the lowermost patties, are prevented from going forward into the conveyorized cooking apparatus by the transverse partition. A sheet of TEFLON or other xe2x80x9cnon-stickxe2x80x9d material may be positioned between the stacks of patties and the transverse partition of the dispensing partition unit to prevent the patties from sticking to the transverse partition.
In this manner, an employee in a fast food restaurant can quickly load a large amount of patties to be cooked into a conveyorized cooking apparatus by merely placing stacks of these patties on the endless loading belt at the dispensing station or stations. The employee is then free to perform other tasks and the present invention ensures that all such patties are automatically loaded sequentially and at spaced intervals into the conveyorized cooking apparatus. Advantageously, predefined dispensing stations may be used to ensure that each hamburger, filet piece or other patty is placed on the cooking conveyor at the same location and the plurality of equally spaced outwardly extending cleats on the endless loading belt creates a uniform space between successive patties as they travel through the cooking chamber. Thus, utilization of cooking chamber area is maximized and catching members may be correspondingly positioned at the discharge of the conveyorized cooking apparatus to collect the cooked pieces. Uniform cooking of the patties is achieved and the risk of undercooking patties is minimized because the loader ensures that each patty travels completely through the cooking apparatus. These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and appended claims, and upon reference to the accompanying drawings.